Name: PLAY ME SOMETHING IN MEMORY OF JOHN BERGER
Start: 2017-02-17T20:00:00+00:00
Location: London Horse Hospital Colonnade

LONDON: The Horse Hospital

Friday 17th February, 2017

8:00pm

Event information

Screening introduced and followed by a discussion on the life and work of John Berger, with curator Gareth Evans and writer Tom Overtone.

Directed by Timothy Neat (1989).

Starring: John Berger, Tilda Swinton, and Hamish Henderson. Dur: 72 minutes.

A very rare screening of 'Play Me Something', collaboration between director Timothy Neat and the intellectual and storyteller John Berger, Play Me Something is a beautiful and mesmerising adaptation of one of Berger's stories: the last 'chapter' of Once in Europa (1987), part of his great 'peasant trilogy' Into their Labours. Although the film won the Europa Prize at Barcelona International Film Festival (1989), it was largely ignored by British critics on its release, and is not currently available on DVD. Screening this film is therefore a rare opportunity to see the critically acclaimed actor Tilda Swinton in one of her earliest roles, and John Berger in his first dramatic role. It is also an occasion, for those interested in the life and work of John Berger, particularly after his portrayal in the recent film The Seasons in Quincy (2016), to see a concrete manifestation of the humanitarian ideas that have driven his art.

Set in an airport lounge on the remote Hebridean island of Barra, Play Me Some- thing presents a group of individuals including a hairdresser (Tilda Swinton), a TV repairman (Hamish Henderson), and a motorcyclist (Stewart Ennis), all awaiting a flight to Glasgow. They meet an enigmatic stranger (John Berger), who tells them the story of a romantic encounter in Venice between an Italian farm worker and a young woman, who spend an evening together talking, dancing, and playing music. Combining a multitude of textures and sources - colour, black and white, 16mm and 35mm, and, for the story within the story, evocative still photographs by Jean Mohr - the film becomes a compelling meditation on the nature of stories and storytelling, politics, work, people and places, and sexuality.

Speakers

Gareth Evans is a writer, curator, presenter and the Film Curator of London's Whitechapel Gallery. He programmes PLACE, the annual cross-platform festival at Aldeburgh Music in Suffolk and produced the essay film Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee as part of his nationwide arts project The Re-Enchantment (2008 - 2011) with Di Robson for Artevents. He has curated numerous film and event seasons (eg Armenia, JG Ballard, Portugal, Romany etc) in London and nationally. He conceived and curated the six week season John Berger: Here Is Where We Meet across London in 2005 and co-curated and co-ordinated All Power to the Imagination! 1968 and Its Legacies, a two month cross-media and multi-institutional season in London marking the 40th anniversary of the events of 1968. He was editor of the international moving image magazine Vertigo from 2002 - 2009.

Tom Overton catalogued John Berger's archive at the British Library and edited Portraits: John Berger on Art. He is working on Berger's biography and a book on migration and archives. His collected writing is available at overton.tw. He has organized exhibitions at King's Cultural Institute, Somerset House and the Whitechapel Gallery.